Discussion Questions

1. What cultural changes have been affected by industrialization?
2. Is there any aspect of your daily life that has not been commodified?
3. Consider the positives and negatives of the culture industries?
4. Which ideologies and institutions do you see as being most supported by the culture industries? 
5. How are current events, news, and information commodified?

Sample Assignments/Activities

• List all the corporations that influence or dictate your daily activities.
• Analyze advertisements for lifestyles or myths that are being sold. (First episode of Mad Men is a good example of advertising of manipulation).
• Assign students a product and make them come up with an advertising campaign, marketing plan, and distribution outlets. 

Suggested Readings

• “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”
• The Practice of Everyday Life 
• Marx and Engels, The German Ideology
• Textual Poachers
• Convergence Culture